Permission Marketing

Permission marketing sends promotional messages to people who have chosen to receive them. It starts with a clear explanation of the sender and the emails on offer, then respects the person’s decision to stop.

An email address collected for account access does not, by itself, explain someone’s marketing preferences. Keep the request for product updates understandable and distinguish it from the messages needed to use the account.

Make the signup choice specific

For an illustrative SaaS newsletter, an unchecked option could say: “Send me Acme’s monthly product updates and tutorials.” Record which address opted in, when it happened, how the choice was made and the wording shown. Let someone create an account without choosing that newsletter.

Keep an unsubscribe route in the marketing emails and carry that preference through imports and integrations. In Loops, a routine API update that explicitly sets subscribed to true can resubscribe a previously unsubscribed contact. The contact properties documentation explains this behavior. A database flag alone is not evidence of how permission was obtained.

Permission and legal requirements

Rules depend on the recipient, location and message. Under UK PECR, unsolicited electronic marketing to individual subscribers generally needs consent or a qualifying soft opt-in. Corporate subscribers are treated differently. The products-and-services soft opt-in has several conditions, including direct collection during a sale or negotiation, similar products or services, and an opt-out both at collection and in later messages. Read the ICO’s electronic-mail guidance before relying on an exception.

US CAN-SPAM sets requirements for commercial email, including truthful sender information and subject lines, a valid physical postal address and a working opt-out. It also distinguishes commercial messages from narrowly defined transactional or relationship messages. The FTC’s compliance guide explains how a message’s primary purpose affects that distinction. Using a transactional sending API does not determine its legal category.

These examples do not cover every jurisdiction or message type. Match your collection and sending process to the rules that apply to your audience, and get qualified advice for uncertain cases.

Preserve the choice over time

Audit the path from signup form to contact record to send. Check a person who opted in, one who declined, and one who later unsubscribed. Double opt-in can add an address-confirmation step, but the wording and records still need to describe what the person agreed to receive.

Related reading

Opt-in · Double opt in · Sender reputation · Email deliverability